1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to computer systems, and more particularly to extending the information displayed by icons in a graphical user interface.
2. Description of Related Art
As the storage capacity of individual memory chips increases and the storage capacity of disk drives increases the number of objects which can be stored and made available to a user explodes. As a result, users often have the need to scan large sets of information objects. Examples include the lists of book marks maintained by web browsers, the results set in information retrieval systems, the inbox of e-mail messages and discussion group threads. If each member of these classes of objects is represented by an icon, then the user is confronted with an array of identical objects with no way of distinguishing information which is important from that which is not.
Several applications (e.g. a Mailtool from Sun Micro Systems) visualize the fact that an e-mail inbox has changed by giving it a different icon (e.g., a plain mailbox versus a stack of mail with an envelope sticking up or a road side mailbox with the flag up or down).
The MacIntosh(copyright) finder allows the user to assign a color to a desktop icon to indicate that it has a different status. For example, an icon for a xe2x80x9chotxe2x80x9d project can be made red by the user.
Several applications use blinking to attract users attention to particularly important content. For example, the Netscape Navigator(trademark) blinks text that has been marked by the page author as being important.
The Problems:
When viewing a display screen having a large number of icons thereon, it is difficult to determine which of the icons one should direct his attentions. If all icons look the same, then a user may neglect icons with important information in favor of those which have no new information or less important information.
In all of the cases mentioned, the prior art uses a dichotomy to visualize two levels of attributes encoded by the changed icon, colorized icon, or blinking information. Also, the prior art uses a single encoding scheme and thus can only encode a single information attribute.
Object oriented programming is a known form of software development that models the real world with representation of objects or modules that contain data as well as instructions that work upon that data. Objects are the basic building blocks of a program. Objects are software entities. They may model something physical like a person or they may model something virtual like checking account. Normally an object has one or more attributes (fields) that collectively define the state of the object; behavior defined by a set of methods (procedures) that can modify those attributes; and an identity that distinguishes it from other objects. Encapsulation refers to the hiding of the details of the object. This permits an object to be treated in a single entity. However, the set of operations associated with the object are explicit and constitute a well defined interface. One object requests another object to perform one or more operations through messaging. An object is sometimes referred to as an instance of an abstract data type or class. The programmer may define a class of objects by describing the attributes and procedures common to the class. By defining the class only once, a plurality of instances can be created by associating the class attributes and procedures with each instance and allowing the instances to differ only in their identity or in a particular value associated with the range of values permitted for the class.
Object oriented programming also permits creation of subclasses in which class attributes and procedures can be inherited by subordinate subclasses and creation of super classes in which only the common attributes and procedures of a group of instances of various classes are retained as the defining characteristics.
The present invention permits the visual presentation of an icon to be expanded to include information about four different attributes of the underlying object represented by the icon, each attribute being represented by a plurality of states in excess of two. Four independent variables can be utilized to control, respectively, the degree of fill of the icon, the color of fill of the icon, the degree of blinking of the icon, and frequency of blinking of the icon.
The invention also permits values for the independent variables to be determined automatically from the underlying object at the time an object is created or revised.
In this way a user can visualize and distinguish icons based on their content and can classify them as to importance.
The invention relates to apparatus for displaying information, including a computer, a display controller configured to control the display of icons so that more than one independent variable may represented simultaneously in the visual display of an icon, and a display connected to the computer by the display controller. Four independent variables can be represented. Their representations include frequency of blinking, degree of blinking, degree of fill and color of icon, respectively. Degree of blinking includes a no blink state, a subtle blink state, an intermediate blink state and an aggressive blink state.
The invention also relates to a method for displaying information, by independently setting two or more visual characteristics of an icon to represent information about the information object represented by the icon, the visual characteristics being selected from the group comprising frequency of blinking, degree of blinking, degree of fill and color of icon. In one form, the information object is a file folder and the information includes a percentage of files having a revision date subsequent to the last time the user viewed the file. This can be represented by degree of fill. In another form, the information object is an e-mail message and the information includes information about the originator of the message and/or about the content of the message. Information about the content can be due date or priority.
The invention also relates to a method for displaying information, by scanning the text of an e-mail message for key words or phrases, and setting a visual characteristics of an icon based on the key words or phrases.
The invention also relates to a method of displaying information, by determining information attributes for an information object, representing the attributes as icon control parameters, storing the parameters as an instance of an icon object representing the class of objects to which the information object belongs, and controlling the display of an icon representing the information object using stored icon control parameters.
The invention is also directed to a computer system, including a network, and a plurality of computers connected to the network, at least one of the computers configured to control the display of icons so that more than one independent variable may represented simultaneously in the visual display of an icon.
The invention also relates to computer program products for carrying out the techniques of the invention.
Still other objects and advantages of the present invention will become readily apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description, wherein only the preferred embodiment of the invention is shown and described, simply by way of illustration of the best mode contemplated of carrying out the invention. As will be realized, the invention is capable of other and different embodiments, and its several details are capable of modifications in various obvious respects, all without departing from the invention. Accordingly, the drawing and description are to be regarded as illustrative in nature, and not as restrictive.